Measuring population health and behavioral science

Question 1

What is Mortality?

Answer 1

deaths

Question 2

What is Morbidity?

Answer 2

disease

Question 3

What is the burden of disease?

Answer 3

the impact of a disease on the health of a particular population OR excess morbidity and mortality in a specific population over a defined period of time

Question 4

Death rate (mortality rate)

Answer 4

deaths / 1,000 population

Question 5

Disability

Answer 5

temporary or permanent impairment

Question 6

Fertility

Answer 6

births

Question 7

Fertility rate

Answer 7

births / 1,000 women

Question 8

Communicable diseases

Answer 8

diseases that spread from person to person

Question 9

Non-communicable diseases

Answer 9

stuff we can live with for a long time (i.e. cancer. heart, diabetes)

Question 10

DALY: Disability Adjusted Life Year

Answer 10

measure of mortality, morbidity, and disability

DALY = YLL + YLD

YLL = Years of life lost due to morality
YLD = Years lost to disability (injury & illness)

Question 11

What is the relationship between life expectancy and mortality?

Answer 11

Ex. Infant mortality rate explains much of overall life expectancy; a larger burden of disease is driving life expectancy down

Question 12

Demography

Answer 12

Demography = study of statistics that demonstrate the changing structure of a population

Question 13

• Demographic transition

Answer 13

Process that describes the change of a population (ex. high fertility & mortality to low fertility and mortality)

Stage 1:
- High death rate (areas with healthcare infrastructures are on Shakey ground, maybe non communicable diseases we cannot control), high birth rate

Stage 2:
- Population starts to grow because deathrate starts to decline
- Better at combatting communicable diseases, healthcare structures are more manageable

Stage 3:
- Declining birth rates, places are urbanizing (family planning services are better and more accessible)
- Death rates going down –> healthcare infrastructure is better –> population grows
- i.e. maybe women are working, less births

Stage 4:
- Low death rate
- Fluctuating but low birth rates
○ Stronger healthcare systems, more developed infrastructure so population levels off

Question 14

Population pyramids

Answer 14

Because of a large aging population, it does not mean that the life expectancy would go up

Question 15

• Epidemiologic transition

Answer 15

Epidemiological transition
- We get better at fighting infectious diseases, the population lives longer and the infectious rate goes down (green)
- As the population lives longer, the non-communicable diseases goes up (black line)
- When a country is at the intersection point = double burden of disease
○ Tricky because they have to figure out how allocate resources to treat non-communicable or infectious diseases
○ Healthcare infrastructures are growing but maybe not stable
○ Taxing on systems that are already stressed so what do we do with our public health dollars